Gratitude: March 2011

This month is my birthday, so I would like to start of by saying I'm grateful for another year of life. Life is so precious and with all the "challenges" we see in the world right now, I'm just thankful for the life God has given me no matter the circumstances I'm challenged presently or in the future. My month started with some good "getting to know" more of my friends. I had some good times where friends opened-up (e.g. email, meeting at the local coffee shop, etc..) more about their life, which it has taken years as friends. I'm thankful for the friends God has put in my life as they have spoken words of encouragement to me.

I was also encouraged to keep doing what I'm doing (writing my on-going life story through websites like these to inspire or encourage others that may benefit from your life experiences) through an inspirational movie (e.g. Antwone Fisher-see Life: Adoption) and a visiting speaker during a post-movie discussion (see Native American)during the local campus's annual event (World Touch Cultural Heritage Week)in the last week of the month. Basically, we all got a story to share and it goes to waste if we don't tell about it...

"We need to learn from history to prevent it from repeating itself"

In order to know where we are going, we need to learn our past. Some people don't go far enough (e.g. family genealogy or family tree) in the past as they stop there. How far in history can you go? (see Creation story)

I also enjoyed the "nearing" Spring-like weather some days of the month despite the first day of Spring started the 20th of March. I had the opportunity to ride my bike, which I'm going to try to do more as it reached it's highest ever for a long-time today (Tuesday, April 5th 2011) at $3.63/gallon!! Crazy, huh? We need to find ways to conserve gas (e.g. walking or riding a bike-great health benefit too with all this exercise).

I can't leave sports out of this too as it was the month of "March Madness"! It was more basketball as a nearby local town (see Stevens County) h.s. girls basketball team went to the big State Tournament. They actually beat a #1 team in the first round, which was very exciting for my workplace. Several of my co-workers are from Hancock, so we followed (via radio at work for 2-days) their local team very closely during the end of the 3rd week. Unfortunately, the lost the 2nd round, which a win would've been a great birthday bonus. I'm very blessed with great co-workers as they gave me a great celebration (e.g. pies, cake, etc..) and I ended up bringing the pies back to the cities to share with family. My family blessed me with a lunch outing at Red Lobster-great seafood!

That same weekend I was in the cities was the annual "Philippine Day" (see GoodnewsMinnesota.info- Minnesota Filipino Community)..

24th Annual Philippine Day St. Paul, MN-Part 1 (March 20th 2011)



Other highlights included one "Snow Day" (saw the 2nd of the "Bourne Identity" trilogy series, which I would watch with a good friend the 3rd part later in the week -see Issues: "Low" Self-Esteem, -Image, -"ish", etc... as I wrote about finding one's own "identity" in life) of the month, which happened 3 days after the "first-official" day of Spring. Went to a couple of "fish fry" with Lent season as I did some fasting once a week during the month and will continue till Easter as I "try" to seek my Heavenly Father's "calling" in this season of my life. I went to an event to learn more about Judaism, a foundation of my Christian faith! I then had my faith built more during a local radio (see Music-Hymns, Praise, Worship, etc...) banquet I was invited (along with a couple of co-workers, friend, and others in the Praise FM listening area) to as faithful sponsor for many years. Lastly, I had a great time with several new students (from Brazil) of my weekly GED-ESL classes the last week as I showed them the "new" town!

During the state girls basketball tournament, there was an unfortunate deadly earthquake in Japan. Currently, as I write this today (Tuesday, April 5th 2011), they are still battling the radiation leak of their nuclear power plants (see Science: Chemistry). Please keep these folks in Japan and their national catastrophe in prayer!

Gratitude: February 2011

February was a short month, but it was full of blessings. It was an early "sport madness" with basketball (e.g. watch T-Dub Slam UMM) and weekly soccer games integrating different groups of the community, etc...).

Also, God has been using Facebook as a ministry tool!! I got a friend that "accepted" me that I have been praying for years to respond to my add. He didn't reply to an email I sent to him after wards, but it's "small baby-steps" in building our friendship back!

I'm still continuing my "new year's resolution of keeping healthy and fit, which I recently joined another class at the local fitness center called Zumba (see body, soul, & mind)! I've been going to this every Thursday evenings, which attracts from 50-80 people. I've started to do more dancing (e.g. work) including the annual Valentine Dance at Clinton, Minnesota with 1/3 of the clients from my workplace. Just to note, this was a week of unusual "spring-like" temperatures (30-40's) as lot of snow melted. Unfortunately, we ended-up getting the snow or even more back (21st-Snow Day) with a 14-15 inch snow storm!

Despite all the snow, I've learned to deal with it by sledding-snowboarding. I had to opportunity to do so with my sister, James (her boyfriend), and niece-nephew at Battle Creek Hill in St. Paul. Also, I went with several of my former students during UMM International Student Orientation last Summer to go sledding-snowboarding-It was the 1st time for all three! (see Cougar-Tiger Hill.

I started my once a week "fast" mid-February as I shared this email (with some wording changes for confidentiality) to folks in my local church:

From: Sal Monteagudo [mailto:saldapal@yahoo.com]
Sent: Saturday, February 12, 2011 2:14 PM
To: Goodnews Everybody
Subject: Sal-power of your stories...

Hi friends-family,

I just wanted to share some awesome stories from the past week or two and I pray this will encourage you all. I've been working at my current job (Stevens County DAC) since December of 2005. I feel "opportunities" happen for a reason and I've been praying for ways to share (more of my lifestyle-"actions speak louder than words") God's love to my co-workers and the clients (mentally-physically challenged adults). He has "opened doors" for me to pray for many (e.g. healing) over the past 5+ years (relationship evangelism) and share my faith. However, I never experience so many "open doors" until the last week or two. A couple of my co-workers went from "short-chat" to "deep-conversations" that enabled me to share my "testimony" with a couple of co-workers this past week alone! Wow, God is awesome! I love to share how God has "worked" in my-life and feel we all do have something to share (e.g. a lady in my local church encouraged all of us on this with sharing our own stories) with others around us because many are looking for "hope" and "encouragement" in these days. I just want to encourage you to seek God daily on how you can be "His light". I look back and I feel my decision to "fast" (e.g. vegetables and fruits-haven't done this for awhile) earlier this week (inspired by my local church message to "seek Him") was very helpful in these "open doors". I've decided to "try" to do this in a weekly basis, which I used to do in my "early" years walking with the Lord.

Lastly, the week ended with me sharing part of my "testimony" with an international student of mine (taught during a week of orientation to 60 international students at the local university) during my 3-hour drive to here ( St. Paul ) to do my "monthly" family visit. Please pray for this student I'll call "Fay" who is currently going through some "academic challenges" (opened-up on this to me, which I feel was started through many relationship-building activities. People start opening-up to you through time and trust) that may cause her to be "expelled'. She's been to Bible studies (went to one last night at the UofM Twin Cities campus), which I feel God has been using others to "plant seeds of faith" since she's been here in the US . Isn't that awesome? We don't have to go abroad , God is sending them and others from around the world to our "backyard" or "front door steps"!! However, some of us are called and I'm praying to back to the Philippines someday!!

Feel free to email me any comments, suggestions, questions, prayer requests, etc.. relating to this.

Brother in Christ,
Sal:)
http://testimony.goodnewseverybody.com/

p.s. If I haven't really share my "testimony", you are welcome to read and share this with others. In fact, feel free to write your "testimony" and share it with me. Let me know if you would love to have me "publicize" this to encourage others (e.g. I just emailed this site and others to a couple of those that I shared with this week) because we all have different stories that can encourage different people with different situations.

My local pastor encouraged me to share stories like this at church, so I shared another story of my mom's recent eye doctor visit. The doctor told her that there was no diabetes in her eyes. She credited it to me praying with here the weekend before I left back to Morris. Also, I've been telling her how I've been fasting on fruit and vegetables once a week, so she tried it and her blood pressure was the lowest it has been.

God has also financially provided in various ways this month with my current "financial situation". I was able to be given hours from my "on-call" part-time job in various days of the month. One of the days seem to be "strategic" as one of my clients at the group home had a "death" in the family, which I was there to give him and his peers "spiritual counsel". I also did some "house cleaning" (sorting my recycle mail) and found a 2 month-old rebate check (Tire Plus). Then I found a coupon for $5, which doesn't seem much. However, it was very timely as I used to help pay for the increasing gas prices ($3.27-Cenex in Morris) for my trip to visit a friend in Moose Lake.

Protector-He was a protector during the last weekend of the month as I was almost involved in a head-on-collision (see GoodnewsMinnesota.info- Outdoors: Winter)going to Moose Lake from Mora. The drive back home didn't end "smoothly" as He opened doors for me to help bystanders on the side of the highway (see Are You Available? February 27, 2011 from goodnewseverybodycom.wordpress.com).

"My lips will shout for joy
when I sing praise to you...24 My tongue will tell of your righteous acts
all day long,... -Psalm 71

The month ended with a great gathering of three different local churches for worship (see Community of Morris) and a guest speaker for a 2-day conference on Creation, which opened-up a great "blog" (30 comments) on Facebook!

Gratitude: January 2011

One of my new year's resolutions of 2011 is to share my gratitude review each month. 2010 went fast and it was hard to remember the "good times", so I'm hoping to do this each month for 2011. I do this to "brag about what Heavenly Fathers" does to help me not dwell on the "negative", but "positive" during daily life challenges.

Well, what were some of my highlights for last month despite the many "cold" below zero days here in Morris, MN?

-After many years since I started teaching ESL to the growing "Spanish-speaking" community in this area. I'm very blessed to see the many folks in our community taking the lead to "reach-out" to them, which I feel God has laid in my heart since I was in Mexico for a "mission-trip" back in 2001. Just some examples are the recent steady growth of the Espanol Services at the Morris Evangelical Free Church. Also, it's awesome to see a new community get-together to "bridge" this particular population through their sport of soccer, which started Wednesday, January 26th-thanks to a emerging "college student" (Great job Yuiry)!

Adult Indoor Soccer Jan27th 2011 from GoodnewsMorrisInfo on Vimeo.

-January is a big month in my family with my younger brother's birthday, parent's wedding anniversary, and my brother's wedding anniversary too! Unfortunately, I wasn't able to be present in any of them because of various reasons (e.g. cold weather, gas, financial, etc..). It was great to see that my family got together for these occasions.
-Speaking of finances, it was a blessing to see a prayer answered that's been long waited for with my house mate's "GI Bill" issue. Long story short, it was a financial blessing for him and me too as housemates! Praise God!
-Lastly, I've never feel so healthy and fit with my recent new year's resolution to be more "healthier" (e.g. not buying or as much "junk food"-> better budget) by participating in fitness classes at the local gym. I take part in an "anaerobic" class on Tuesdays and/or Thursdays after work, which a "new" friend (Scott-met through the "Espanol Services") and I started together in the beginning of the month. It's been a great way to meet other people in the community too!

Gratitutde: Sal's 2010 New Year Reflection

Sal's Reflection of 2010

{http://www.angelfire.com/mn/saldapal/reflection.2010.html}

Read our blog and follow us on facebook, twitter, and youtube!!

Picture: My younger brother took this picture at on of the Battle Creek trails in St. Paul, Minnesota on October of 2010

Happy New Year..2011!! Wow, what a year! What did you thought about 2010? Before we enter the "new year", I (Sal) would like to take some time to reflect on God's blessings (share them here) of this past year. We sometimes easily forget what we did each year unless we STOP and think about what happened in our "busy" lives. During these holidays, I like to take advantage of the "break" and share with others "what happened in 2010"..

Some highlights this past year..

-January:
Hired some friends from my local church (Morris, MN) to help do the major work or remodeling my basement.
-April:
Went to my "first Minnesota Twins game" at Target Field
-July:
Joined 3 of my students (ESL) on a 3-day weekend trip to the scenic places around Mount Rushmore, South Dakota

-August
Seeing our community opening their resources by starting new weekly church services for the growing "Spanish-speaking" population in making it a better place in "welcoming" them
Got the opportunity to do my passion for teaching ESL at the college I attended at for a week during UMM International Student Orientation. Many of them are from China!!
UMM International Students at the Dragon Boat Races (Meet #2)in Starbuck

-September:
Started my "flood-control" external basement project that would last 2 1/2 months

Picture: I am with a friend (Chris T.) from my local church, who was part of the annual homeschool winter play ""Genesis The Story of Creation to the Call of Abram of Ur"" (see more pics) on a "wintry" Friday (December 10th of 2010).

My New Year's Resolution is the same like every past years, which is to be more "Christ-like" (body, soul, and mind) with God's help....in my daily personal relationship (e.g. reading the Bible, prayer, fellowship, praising-worshiping, etc..)..Also, to be more of a "peacemaker" in all situations in my daily surroundings through 2010!

Today (Friday, December 31st of 2010) during my 1 1/2 weeks of "winter break", I decided to write down some "goals" (see purpose-driven life) I've been pondering about this past week. Here are some:

-praying for financial provision to finish my "basement remodeling" (e.g. finished my basement to start renting, get double-pane windows for my living room this summer, finish the north section of insulating my external basement walls, etc...) project (monthly if possible)
-continue helping "reaching out" to the growing "Spanish-speaking" community in Stevens County
-build current and future relationships (family, friends, co-workers, etc.)
-take advantage of the "opportunities" to make "peace-reconciliation" with everybody in every situation
-Give God the glory in "everything" I do (e.g. work, family, leisure, etc..)
-continue teaching what I know and learning in life with others (e.g. niece, nephew, ESL/GED students, Sunday School, etc..) "younger' than me

Gratitude: Didn't fall on my butt

I'm grateful that I didn't fall on my "butt" this morning on the slippery ice on my way to church. I woke up this morning (Sunday, November 21st 2010) expecting an inch or so of snow as it was forecasted last night. It was still green but wet outside. Well, due to recent yard work, my sidewalk was covered with dirt and gravel. Thus, I didn't realize how slippery it wasn't until later. I was putting up signs for my local church as I "try" to regularly every Sunday morning in Morris, Minnesota. When I was just close to finish crossing the street, I slipped and landed forward on the church sign. I'm just grateful that I didn't slip backwards and fall on my "butt". I guess it could've been worse-hitting the back of my head. I'm just thankful to God that He was watching me.

I started to write this after attending an evening church service (in Spanish at the Morris Evangelical Free Church) where they had a special service. They had folks come up to the mike to share about what they are thankful-grateful to God for. I guess, I could've shared this too! I also was inspired to write this as part of my daily share I plan to have on my facebook status as we head to Thanksgiving this week. I chose this particular subject after finding this video (down below) during my nightly "ritual" of reading-watching news online before going to bed.



I'm just thankful that I live in Morris and wasn't part of the minor-major crashes back in my hometown. My thoughts and prayers for those involved with the 370 reported crashes. Especially my prayer for the love ones of the one fatality. My slip this morning was very minor compared to many accidents. I guess it's all perspective on how we should be thankful to God for no matter what circumstances one goes through in a daily basis.

more..http://outdoors.goodnewsminnesota.info/fall.html

Gratitude: Fishing Provision

I just wanted to share God's faithfulness after a great day of fishing this past Saturday. I haven't fished at all because of the busy summer trying to finish my "basement" remodeling project. I decided to go fishing with my housemate because he was treating his niece and nephews (3 boys). While we were driving to the Bait Shop (Glenwood, Minnesota), I did a one sentence quick prayer-"Heavenly Father we pray for a blessed fishing day"..in Jesus' name..Amen! Well, we all remembered that prayer after our short 2 1/2 hour fishing time on our way "home". When we were all celebrating our "catches" (each kid caught at least 2 fishes), I pointed out to our prayer earlier..Praise the Lord!!!

more..
http://sports.goodnewseverybody.com/outdoors.html

Gratitude-People in My Life

Do you ever "get tired" of the people around you? I'm sure we all do in some way or form. Why? (e.g. "getting on your nerves") How can we change this "negative" attitude? Have you ever seen the recent anticipated movie..."Shrek 4: Forever After (FINAL CHAPTER)"?...

FULL HD NEW MOVIE TRAILER 2010

I just watched it yesterday (Friday, May 28th 2010) and had some deep reflections during, after, and still! I thought of not just my family, but the people (e.g. friends, church, community, co-workers, people that serve you in various ways, etc...) in my life. I'm continuing to learn that many of the people around me were put by God to "mold" me as a "better person". Sometimes, we "need to change" besides the person we "despise". Have you ever look at yourself and think that our "attitudes" toward some "annoying" individuals is because we "have our own issues" too? I "try" to pray and ask God to shape me more "like Him" daily, so I can be a "better" light or ambassador to the people He has put in my life. Also, another tip I just heard through one of my favorite local radio stations (KTIS 98.5 FM-Twin Cities) is to pray for those you "have problems with". God seems to soften your heart too to have more "grace" with that particular individual. Just try it, it has worked with me many times before.

Another similar related tip that I've blogged or written before is about changing your own perspective of people. No matter how much we "might not like" each other, I feel we can take something "positive" (e.g. characteristic) from one another. Instead of dwindling on the "negative" (e.g. personality) of the people "we get tired of", re-thing or change that attitude of that individual by reflecting on the "good".

Just like in the movie, "we won't appreciate what we got until their gone"!

Q: What are you going to do show your appreciation to that person(s) today, tomorrow, everyday??

more....GoodnewsEverybody.comBless-Thanksgiving, Thankful, etc..